Review: Broken

Reviewed by Jen

Kelley Armstrong returns to her Otherworld roots, in this sixth installment of her series… by bringing back Elena as her narrator. We’ve only seen sporadic glimpses of our favorite werewolf over the course of the last few books. Those cameos were enough to assure us that she and Clay were going strong. And now they’re closer than ever… Elena is pregnant.

Of course, she’s a bit worried. After all, she’s the only female werewolf, making her pregnancy unprecedented. But on top of her concerns, she’s dealing with a boredom she can’t quite shake. So she’s excited to get a call from Xavier Reese. He’s the half-demon we met in Stolen, who helped Elena out of a tough spot with some guards. He proposes a deal to her: He’ll help her find a man-killing mutt, if she agrees to help him procure an old artifact. It’s called the From Hell letter, and is purported to have been written by Jack the Ripper.

Unfortunately, there are complications. When Elena, Clay and Jeremy get ahold of the letter, they inadvertently open a portal, releasing 19th century zombies into Toronto. They begin wreaking havoc on the city while zeroing in on Elena. It’s not exactly the quiet pregnancy Clay and Jeremy had wanted for her, but they can’t ignore what’s happening.

Jamie the necromancer is back to help them with their cause. Again, I really like her. And I wish Jeremy would just wake up and return her feelings. His stoicism annoys me. –Anyway, it’s an action-packed book. Not quite as much of the sexual element as in most Elena books, but she’s big and pregnant, so I guess I understand. As always, I love Clay and it’s nice that he is finally getting closer to the relationship with Elena that he’s always wanted. This is probably my least favorite of the Elena books, but it’s still a solid installment. 4 stars.